situation in which a manager wishes to determine what change would have to take place in the value of a specified variable in a specified time period to achieve a specified value for another variable. For example, a manager can ask the following "goal seeking" question: "What would the unit sales price have to be for the project to achieve a target return on investment of 20%?" A well-known financial planning package such as the INTERACTIVE FINANCIAL PLANNING SYSTEM (IFPS) can help answer this type of question.